Making a grand entrance

by Neil Wilkinson | Feb 1, 2009 | Allotment

We had a few jobs to finish off or get started with this weekend. The main task was to neaten the front of the plot on the outside of the fence. The top trek layer came right up to the edge of the path but didn’t have a straight edge and in some places was wearing thin. Given the time we have spent making the plot itself look lovely we thought this part needed some TLC. We hope to put some flowers and pots there once the time is right for planting. Neil bought some thin batons of wood to make a defined edge but first we had to scrape up the top trek and then cut away the membrane. This was quite a good job for us after the seemingly never ending greenhouse saga as it didn’t take long at all and it makes a big difference.

The next pressing task was planting. Exciting! We have had a good week for deliveries and some of our parcels contained bushes that we had to leave in tubs of water until today. We went via the garden centre as the blueberry bush needs an ericaceous compost (an acidic soil) and we also picked up some multipurpose compost for some of our other tubs and a couple of healthy looking rosemary plants. We have ordered rosemary seeds but some of our research seemed to indicate that growing from seed can be quite difficult and therefore using cuttings or an established plant is more successful. So we planted the rosemary, blueberry and blackberry bushes and the raspberry canes (which incidentally look far too dead and withered to ever bear fruit, but I’m told that’s what they are supposed to look like!)

A really good allotment find came in the form of the black tubs you can see above. In their previous life they were wastepaper baskets at Neil’s work. In a bid to become more green they were all replaced by large recycling bins. And they have sat in a darkened storeroom ever since. That is until Neil liberated them after a bit of tough negotiating! He brought about 20 home and there are plenty more should we need them, which at this rate we most certainly will.

In case you are thinking that this is all we did today, we also attended the monthly allotment society meeting ( nothing much to report there) and started digging the last two beds. Unfortunately, our progress was halted at about 3pm with a flurry of snow! It had been snowing on and off a couple of times this afternoon but it didn’t really come to much and after a brief respite in the greenhouse we were back out again. However, this downpour looked set to last  and so we decided to call it a day. Lets hope the plants we put in today are hardy enough to survive the cold snap.